1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cash register till design. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for retrofitting existing cash tills to accommodate extra coin holders.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Currently, there is a large installed base of cash register tills that are typically designed to hold four or five different types of coins. The same tills also typically have a like number of currency slots for holding different denominations of bills. FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a typical prior art cash register till having five bill slots and five coin compartments. The U.S. Mint has decided to release a new one dollar coin and possibly new two and five dollar coins. This has created a need for retailers to be able to handle these new coin types efficiently. Absent some way to increase coin holders in existing cash register tills, merchants will have to either purchase new tills with additional coin compartments already present to accommodate the new coin types or decide not to hold some coin types in the cash register till.
Accordingly, there is a need for a new method and apparatus to inexpensively retrofit the large installed base of cash register tills to allow for efficient handling of additional coin types as they are placed into circulation.
The present invention solves the above-described problems and provides a distinct advance in the art of cash register till design. More particularly, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for inexpensively retrofitting existing cash register tills that provides inserts designed to fit into existing bill slots for stabilizing additional coin cup holders.
The apparatus of the present invention broadly includes an insert for holding coin cups in a cash till bill slot. A special coin cup is provided designed to rest in the coin cup holder and comprising a notch in its back wall to allow it to pass under the attachment points of a bill weight typically provided in existing cash tills to hold down bills in the bill slots. The coin cup holder allows the coin cup to rest evenly without rocking and can be removed from the till for ease of counting. The coin cup holder and coin cup may be made of any appropriate size to fit into various existing bill slots.
By constructing coin cup inserts and coin cups as described herein, numerous advantages are realized. For example, relatively inexpensive retrofits of existing cash tills are possible, substantially reducing the cost to merchants in accommodating new coin types as they are put into circulation by government authorities.
These and other important aspects of the present invention are described more fully in the detailed description below.